More than having NBA talent, EuroBasket 2005 has proved that team basketball wins games.

Performances by NBA players have been mixed as attitude and team ball have prevailed over individual play.

Case in point is Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, who has dominated EuroBasket 2005 by leading the competition in scoring and rebounding with 27.8 points and 12.3 boards.

“He makes every team look great,” German head coach Dirk Bauermann said.

Nowitzki has single-handedly led Germany to the quarter-final round while playing within in the team concept.

“He is just one of the guys,” said Bauermann. “He never demands preferential treatment.”

The thought was echoed by Turkish head coach Bogdan Tanjevic.

“He is very well behaved,” he said. “He is a simple guy with superstar tools.”

But not all NBA players and teams can say the same thing.

Turkey’s NBA players had a EuroBasket that they would like to forget, and their team chemistry was suspect at best. Mehmet Okur didn’t start in several games for Turkey and was held in single digits for three of four games. His teammate Hidayet Turkoglu shot an abysmal 2-for-15 in Turkey’s elimination game loss to Germany.

“We were a better team on paper, but that doesn’t mean anything in the tournament,” said Turkoglu.

Perhaps one of the best examples of NBA players not automatically equaling EuroBasket success is the comparison between Lithuania and Serbia-Montenegro.

Lithuania’s star-depleted roster which doesn’t contain any NBA players finished Preliminary Round play with an undefeated record of 3-0. In contrast, Serbia-Montenegro’s group of NBA players, featuring NBA talents Marko Jaric, Aleksandar Pavlovic, Vladimir Radmanovic, Nenad Krstic, Darko Milicic and Zeljko Rebraca, never meshed as the host country disappointed by not qualifying for quarter-finals.

“I still think we are the best team here but the relationship problems that have gone on over the past two months have never been fixed,” Serbia-Montenegro coach Zeljko Obradovic said following the loss to France.

Other NBA players of note that have faired well are Andrei Kirilenko (16.7 ppg) and Viktor Khyrapa (13 ppg).

Croatia’s NBA players – Gordan Giricek, Zoran Planinic and Mario Kasun – have also been solid. The trio are averaging 16, 12.5 and 12.3 respectively.

“I think that other NBA players are having a hard time because the defense here can stay in the paint and it is so much more difficult to score,” Giricek said.

Slowed by nagging injuries, San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker struggled in his first three games with France and has averaged just 6.8 points per game heading into the quarter-final round. Parker wasn’t even in coach Claude Bergeaud’s starting line-up when the French upset host Serbia-Montenegro, but he did come off the bench in the game and had his best performance of the tournament thus far, scoring 13 points.

Boris Diaw of the Atlanta Hawks and Mickael Pietrus of the Golden State Warriors have picked up the scoring for France, averaging 13.8 and 11.

		Andrei Kirilenko has been one of the NBA stars who has shined at EuroBasket

Slovenia jumped out to a 3-0 mark behind the play of Bostjan Nahbar, who is averaging 13 a game. Primoz Brezec of the Charlotte Bobcats and Radoslav Nesterovic of San Antonio have been held to single-digit scoring averages.

Undoubtedly, the country that plays the best team basketball for the rest of the competition will be standing on top of the podium this Sunday.